Rise (and Leave) as One: Twins Trade Louis Varland, Ty France to Toronto Blue Jays

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

In a final, head-spinning fling, the Minnesota Twins finished off one of baseball history's most unrepentant and unblinking fire sales by trading both Louis Varland and Ty France to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Varland was, for as much as 20 or 30 seconds, the apparent closer-in-waiting, after trades sent Jhoan Duran, Brock Stewart, Danny Coulombe and Griffin Jax to various corners of the MLB world over the final 24 hours before Thursday's trade deadline. France, signed to play first base and a hero of some early wins when the team got hot in May, got so cold by July that the team figured he'd be more comfortable in Canada.

For Varland (the Minnesota native who was under team control through 2030) and France, the Twins received outfielder Alan Roden and left-handed pitcher Kendrys Rojas, according to The Athletic's Mitch Bannon.

Roden has an interesting backstory—he's an astrophysicist moonlighting as a ballplayer, or the other way around—but has struggled to solve the ballistic equations required to consistently collide efficiently with the ball at the plate. 

Rojas, 22, is a Cuban emigre and lefty who stands 6-foot-2. He's filling out well physically, but his velocity so far sits in the low 90s most of the time. His fastball shape checks the boxes the Twins look for, though, and he shows some feel for both a slider and a changeup. Ranked 11th on Baseball America's midseason update of the Blue Jays' top 30 prospects list, he looks like a promising addition to the Twins' organizational pitching depth.

The perplexing part of this trade (in contrast, say, with the Carlos Correa or Stewart or Coulombe trades) lies not in the question of why the team didn't get more back, but in why they did it at all. This move saves almost no money and gives up a local kid who made good and was under team control for the long term. Rojas is a really nice pickup, and Roden probably isn't any less valuable than France, but the push factors that prompted them to even consider the allure of the news players they acquired are harder to identify in this case. Nonetheless, it will be fun to follow the careers of these two new pieces; they're more compelling than the returns in some of the day's earlier moves.

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[Aggies7]

I don’t get the varland move.

[Brett]

I’m struggling to name anyone left in the Twins bullpen. Is Funderburk the closer now?

[Nashvilletwin]

For Alan Roden?  C’mon, they can’t be serious…

[NYCTK]

Not even I had the Twins trading Varland and I was gungho for the fire sale. Interesting workings. 

[strumdatjag]

They have no bullpen for this year or next.  Cole Sands is the closer.  This is bigger than the 1970s Calvin Griffith firesale (Hisle, Goltz …).   I was onboard until Jax and Varland. 

[GNess]

This is a reckless approach.

[Nashvilletwin]

Nine players off the 26 man roster

Duran

Jax

Stewart

Varland

Columbe

Correa

Bader

Castro

Francev

[twinstalker]

Rojas is the guy here, though he's far away.  Roden should be fine by next year but he's not the main piece.

[BH67]

2 minutes ago, GNess said:

This is a reckless approach.

Falvey is gone anyway. Maybe he's doing this out of spite?

[PDX Twin]

Add Baldelli and Falvey to that list ... please!

[Glorybound]

If you are a Twins player and didn’t get traded you should be ashamed of yourself.

[shimrod]

7 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

I don’t get the varland move.

Cost of moving the remainder of France's salary. Twins scrounging every dime. 

[tony&rodney]

5 minutes ago, Nashvilletwin said:

Nine players off the 26 man roster

Duran

Jax

Stewart

Varland

Columbe

Correa

Bader

Castro

Francev

.... and Paddack a few days ago.

I guess Derek is an angry elf.

[Aggies7]

Just now, shimrod said:

Cost of moving the remainder of France's salary. Twins scrounging every dime. 

I need to see a list of the players we’re getting back.

[TopGunn#22]

I cannot disagree gentleman.  We had done O.K. up to Correa and while we're waiting for details like who we got and how much we still have to pay for Carlos, I was on board with the move.

Trading Jax (even if it was for Taj Bradley) and Varland (not really impressed with who we got from the Blue Jays especially with Varland looking like he'd found his footing as a solid back end BP piece) I'm wondering why Falvey didn't quit while he was ahead.

It's like he's burning the house down and running out the back door down a dark alley.  

[Twins63]

Holy sh*t! Guess ownership was really listening to feedback from potential buyers saying your expenditures are too much for a price tag of 1.5 to 1.7 billion🥶.

[Mike Sixel]

I really don't get this at all. Whatever. Falvey clearly is giving us all the finger at this point.

[Guest]

Well, to the extent payroll was an obstacle to selling the Twins, that's not going to be a problem now....

And for all those who sized up St. Paul's opening day roster and drooled, well we're going to see how they play across town....

[BH67]

This feels like the closing day of the Supreme Court term when all the big case decisions come at once...except that we don't know all the cases.

[Maybe Next Year]

Unbelievable! Just when I though this organization couldn't get any more stupid, they trade Varland, Jax, Columbe, Stewart and Duran. Top it off with Castro. Falvey is a complete incompetent idiot! I understand France, Bader and Correa but I don't understand how in the hell you trade 5 pitchers out of your bullpen. 

[CharlieDee]

Falvey and co. have led us to this day....I can't even believe it to be honest.

[Nshore]

I thought Major League baseball prohibited this kind of wholesale gutting of a team.

[DuluthDuke]

Holy fire sale batman. I'm stunned.

[tony&rodney]

2 minutes ago, TopGunn#22 said:

I cannot disagree gentleman.  We had done O.K. up to Correa and while we're waiting for details like who we got and how much we still have to pay for Carlos, I was on board with the move.

Trading Jax (even if it was for Taj Bradley) and Varland (not really impressed with who we got from the Blue Jays especially with Varland looking like he'd found his footing as a solid back end BP piece) I'm wondering why Falvey didn't quit while he was ahead.

It's like he's burning the house down and running out the back door down a dark alley.  

Reports are the Twins pay $33M.

Falvey was angry or not running things.

Let me be the first to say, with pride, that i never stepped on the neck of the White Sox when they were down and out. The few times I've been to Comiskey/ attach latest name/ Rate the experience has been fun. I hope there is one CWS fan who doesn't relish the pain of the suffering Twins fans. 

Will the Rockies pass the Twins in the W-L  standings?

[Danchat]

Good luck to Sands and Topa figuring out how to pitch in high leverage situations the next two months!

Perhaps this is the point where they transition their mediocre AA/AAA starting pitching prospects into becoming relievers and are able to piece together a bullpen next year out of young cheap arms? That's the most positive take I can pull out of what's left of this group.

Maybe they just don't believe in Varland long term? Because if they did, he'd still be a super valuable trade chip in 2/3 years time.

[OvertheHill]

Just one final middle finger to the fan base. 

[kroll]

Do anyone of us really care?

Anyone "sweating" next years team is delusional.

Trade anyone you can.

i'm still a Twins fan but couldn't care any less about who is coming or going.

Hopefully the new owners have deep pockets and we can pick up some solid ballplayers in free agency.

[Tibs]

Trading Louie doesn't make any sense. Almost feels personal

[purplesoldier4u]

This is ridiculous! I hope they don't draw a thousand fans to any of the remaining games!